Born Oct/Nov 2015

Ok, so this morning I did my first "PINK" shopping for our little madame...

It was tricky however finding some newborn babygrows for her as everyting is thick winter and padded babywear. Did manage to get some gorgeous 0-3 and 3-6 months things...but my goodness! Baby outfits are damn expensive!!! Will wait to see what we get from the babyshower, before buying some more stuff.

Oh yes... and I got my Vitality Baby Bag. Can you believe the Babies R Us manager took the bag to take out ALL my vouchers (discount & R100 shopping voucher) as she said the new vitality baby card which offer 10% discount, replaces all the previous vouchers. You also do not qualify for discount on any of the nappies anymore... I was a bit pissed at that, cause I was counting on that big discount for either the stroller or the carseat.

The bag however wasn't to shabby - or rather the contents... the bag is more a shopper bag than anything else. I've attached a photo of the contents.

I also went to Dischem for my baby bag - because I'm already a Dischem catd holder and on Dischem Vitality (15% discount on a wide range of products), I only had to supply them with my due date No hassle whatsoever!
And they showed me the bag - it's awesome!!! And all the stuff you'll need in those first days.

Oh wow. Got to my locum this morning and Clicks has absolutely gorgeous Tatty Teddy things! Little sleep suits, two piece suits, togs (the sleeping bag type things for baby to wear) and little teddy bear suits with a hood! Self control must be exercised!

We had some done with my first... Here I was 32 weeks. I'm now 18weeks and my tummy feels like it's the same size...

I think this time we'll only get some done a bit later when I'm close to 30 weeks.

You're lucky that your husband can take some!!! If I think of the hassle of finding a photographer again and to actually like "their" work etc - it's a mission!

Here's a few examples of ours from 2009...

Gosh LouiseMarie... I thought I had issues with my husband's family at times! Well there are still issues, especially with one of the sisters and brothers because together with their partners they are very cliquey. But I must say that his sisters have been very excited about our baby, for one because it'll be the first time she's an aunty and not the mommy and for the other because it's another girl to buy pretty things for.

Random, I am wanting DH to use his skills (he is a photographer, my avatar is an example of his work) to good use and do some bump photos. There's a competition to submit photos for the cover of next year's Expectant Mother's Guide so I'm looking for bump photo ideas. The only ones he's seen are cheesy and we tend to stay away from the cheesy photo trends. I also want to do some bodyscapes and celebrate the changes (even if I'm starting to feel like and resemble a whale!), show the stretch marks, etc.

Anyway, if you go on the Expectant Mother's Guide Facebook page there's a link to fill in details and stand a chance to win a R5500 voucher for BabyCity.

Lol... That's in-laws for you... She's such a stuck up ... She is the only sister - so she always got ALL the attention! Never felt threatened with any of the brother's girlfriends, cause she manipulated my husband's previous girlfriends and the other brother was divorced. She also had the only children in the family.

So when I unexpectedly fell pregnant with our first immediately with our first attempt, the jealousy seriously kicked in!!! I also never gave her the time of day, so she fast realised I'm not fazed by her.
Anyway - Elmarise was not even 2 months old and all of a sudden she was pregnant.

Hubby was for long against having a second child - but last year we finally got onto the same page... We however decided to keep it under wraps, not to put any pressure on ourselves. So come April and we finally announce we are 2 months pregnant, I swear I think she puked in her mouth...

Her first words: I thought you didn't want to have any more kids!
Not a congratulations or nothing!!! When she found out baby is also due in November (same as my daughter) she responded: what is it with us and all the November babies?! Cause her 1st son is also a November baby...

Urgh... Anyway - hubby knows his sister is a complete and total and actually made the suggestion that we never see them anyway, so why bother being "friends" with them. It's always been a relationship coming from our side - never from theirs. So we actually just decided to shut out the negativity.

I know she's asking about the pregnancy from my parents- and brother in law, and I just sit back and laugh... Cause for once it's not all about her!

Wouldn't be surprised if she also announces soon that she's pregnant, lol! But I couldn't care less...

Pillpusher - as for you and hubby's decision - it's the best! Go with the flow...

I was told early on that I should forget about natural birth, as something was too small... can't remember if it was my pelvic or something else? So I got comfortable with the idea of a c-sec. As gory as it was - I forced myself to watch each and every c-sec video I could find on youtube to know exactly what I'm letting myself in to. And eventually I was fine with it...

I never gave much thinking into breastfeeding - none what so ever! So whn little one was born unexpectedly a week earlier I had NO idea what was in store for me... Yeah you hear people talking about milk coming in, and engorged breasts... NOTHING could've compared me for the real thing!

Elmie was born @ 04:15am... I knew I was able to breastfeed cause 2 months prior to her birth I already started excreting "milk". She immediately took to my breast after birth.

I can't remember when they took out my catheter, but I had to go to the bathroom... I walk in there and look at myself and just SHOUTED at my husband: Oh my gosh!!! This is what tuppers will look like!!! (implants)

3 hours later I was screaming of pain... my boobs were rock-hard...the milk couldn't come out. So the nurses helped me and I had to put one breast in HOT water, then dip it into ice cold water... The next day my only relieve was found in boiled cabbage leaves. This time around, I'll take my whole cabbage with to the hospital (they can just boil the leaves for me) and I will express before my breasts get that full, cause baby can't drink that much...

I literally went from a 34D to a 42DD... Loved the look, but hated the pain!

Hi pillpusher,

I wish I had waited before buying my pump, would have saved some money there. FYI I had a emergency C-section and was able to breastfeed afterwards, my milk just wasn't nutritious enough for LO (we thought he was colicy meantime he was damn hungry). Baby Boom usually has the pumps on special I bought mine there.

Yes Louise is comes with the battery option as well, it also has spare parts included like valves and an extra nipple shield and if I remember correctly it has a Nappi Code so you can claim it back from the medical aid, some aids apparently pay for BP's. I never got around to trying to claim it from Discovery.

Good luck with your pregnancies.

I haven't looked at breast pumps at all. But I'll keep a look out for the Snookums one.

DH and I have spoken about it and decided that we'll wait until our munchkin is here before we buy that kind of thing since we won't know whether or not I'll be able to breastfeed. Like the natural vs C section debate, we're taking things as they come and he's said he's not going to pressurise me one way or the other because we'll do whatever will be best for Eliana. If she cooperates and I can give birth naturally and breastfeed it will be fantastic, but if plans go awry and I need to go under the knife or my milk doesn't come in or isn't nutritious enough then we'll adjust as we need to.

@LouiseMarie – what a cheek!!! I can't believe your SIL would do that! My SIL loaned me her fetal doppler, which unfortunately I haven't been able to use because the battery is low and each time I've tried I haven't been able to find munchkin's heartbeat. So I'm actually sending it back to her now 'cause she says a friend of hers is pregnant now and would like to use it. But if she'd actually given it to me then I would pass it along if she was ok with it. Definitely not sell it Or if selling then would send/split the money with her.